I know it's a rather subjective question, but I've been thinking that to really harness the SH-AWD in the wintertime up here in New England, that snow tires might be good purchase.

But I guess the real question is, since I live inside the 128 belt outside of Boston, the roads are plowed fairly quickly, would the winter tires be that much better over the tires that come with the SH-AWD?

If that's the case, and I got some winters to put on my 18", and decided to get new wheels/tires in the spring, could I do the swap myself? I'm thinking from a balancing perspective.... once the tires on on the wheels and balanced, they can be swapped and stored correct? Then next fall I can swap them myself and save some money.

Thoughts anyone?

 

I believe they are worth it, if you live where you'll be encountering winter conditions. Even if you don't have deep snow covered roads, the tires will perform better due to the softer rubber compound. You'll get better grip in the colder temperatures, even on clear roads.

If you go with a dedicated set of wheels & tires ( one for summer & one for winter), you can easily swap them out yourself.(That's what I do) If you want the TPMS system to work, make sure your second set of wheels/tires also has the TPMS sensors.

I find this gets me the best of both worlds for traction & performance. It can be a bit expensive up front, but then you'll be set for a few years.

 

Yea, I guess that was more what I was wondering from a cost/benefit perspective.

A set of 4 new winter tires are looking like they're going to be about $900 - $950. I would just have them put on my existing 18" factory wheels. Then in the spring I would get a set of RJ wheels and buy some 3 season's (or something that's good till Nov time frame) and mount them on 19"s

I'm going to get some new wheels this spring anyway, the question is do I get them and keep my old wheels for winter's. Or if I upgrade my wheels to 19"s if I just get good all seasons and that would be fine.

Anyone else done something similar?

 

For my setup I got the car with the Acura 19" wheels and Michelin Pilot Sport summer performance tires. I bought a set of the Acura 18" wheels and bought a set of Dunlop WinterSports M3's for them. I now can change them out whenever the need arises.

If you're planning on new wheels for the spring anyway, I'd opt for putting snows on the 18's as it'll be cheaper and put the summers on the new 19's. Discount Tire beat Tire Rack's price on the winter tires, so if you have them around, they'd be a good place to check for pricing.

 

winter tires are for more than just acceleration, which is what (SH-)AWD is pretty much only good for. braking, turning, etc.. your winter tires will outperform all-seasons any day of the week in the cold.

 

X2...... I have been doing it for over 15 years and have never regretted it. Saves wear and tear on your rims and tires.

 

im not sure if its gona be a tuff winter thid year ...im not sure if i should change my tires yet

 

I recently did the same thing, except I put LM 60's on my stock 19" wheels. I couldn't see paying what my dealer wanted for a set of the SH-AWD 18's plus tires, and I'm not all that enamoured with the stock 19's, so I'm eyeing a set of DT III's for 3-season and will run the stock's as winter wear.

 

Alright, great feedback everyone. I think I'll see into getting some winters for my 18's then in the spring get new wheels and tires for the 3 seasons. I've heard that the Dunlop Wintersport M3's are pretty good. At least from the few mentions of them on here... I'll have to do more searches on good winter tire options.

 

So, ended up getting the Dunlop Wintersport M3's last Tuesday before Christmas. Glad I got them. Drove to MI for the holidays, and they're getting quite a bit of snow out here. Drove around and was blown away by the grip and performance. The roads were snowy, icy, slush covered, and my car never once clicked on the ABS or did the traction control kick on.

 

^Nice combo with the AWD.

We've had a fair amount of snow of the past few days and the WinterSport M3's really shine with the AWD.

 

Took some of the back roads for fun around here, none of which were plowed, I really had to push it to break it loose... Even then I still felt like I had full control. I'm glad I feel like I got my money's worth. Now for the wait until the spring when I can put some summers and 19"s on it.

 

Here is a slightly different take on your question. Only you can answer whether you need winter tires, but if you do, I would consider the following solution.

1. Keep your current 18's with your current all season tires on them, and drive slowly. SH-AWD is great for traction when moving out, but NO better than a two wheel drive set up when stopping (i.e., using your brakes)

2. If you decide to get winters, get 17" wheels (cheaper overall, you might even be able to get takeoffs on ebay for cheap) and do a minus 1. Narrower section tires actually do better in the deep snow, and they are cheaper to boot. You would get 225/55-17, which is a whole lot cheaper, with 8 choices, on the Tire Rack than 245/50-17 stock size in winters, for which you only have 1 choice. You will have a little less ultimate grip in the winter, but you are only talking probably sometime mid November to mid March where your temps are below 34 degrees.

3. Get some good summer tires on your 18's. You will find many more choices and much better prices in 245/45-18 than you will in 245/40-19. The 18 inch size is much more popular than the 19 inch size, and the free market works, by giving you more choice and better relative pricing.


If you proceed with the 18" winters with the object of getting 19" summers, you can certainly do that, I am just offering what I think is a cheaper way to achieve the same end. I think unless you drive in a controlled environment (i.e., a track) you will get just as much enjoyment out of driving high performance summer 18's on the street as you will 19"s. In fact, because 19's tend to be heavier, unless you spend a lot of money on forged wheels, you could actually degrade your handling and braking with the additional unsprung weight. I went from heavy weight wheels to light weight forged ones, and losing 92 lbs of unsprung weight made a HUGE difference.

In answer to your other question, you can do the swap yourself. The tires are mounted and balanced and you just take one set off and put the other set on. All you need is a jack and a torque wrench, with the correct deep socket. Put the unused set in storage until next time....

now if you want the 19's for looks, that is another story

 

Great education there!

 

I ended up getting a local place down in price for some Dunlop Wintersport M3's in 245/45R18. I had them put on the factory 18" wheels. I recently drove thru Canada from MI to MA, and hit some total whiteout conditions on 402. The roads were completely covered, and one time I had to stop suddenly, the tires grip was phenominal and only clicked my ABS for a brief moment.

But yea, i'm getting the 19" more for looks than performance. The RonJon Legend wheels are not much different in weight than the factory ones. I'm not about to drop 1k per wheel on forged ones just to maybe get a little bit more performance. I have yet to see any empirical evidence showing a huge performance increase by decreasing the weight of the wheels. I understand unstrung weight and the physics of it, but until someone can test this out fully, I'd rather put wheels on that look great and are reasonably priced than super-light weight 17"s on a 2 ton car.

 

Everyone who has tried snow tires raves about them. But I have owned a car since 1979 (and am now on my 2nd TL), and have always stuck with all-seasons, and this is in Ontario where we can get Winter!

I've never had a problem, although have been stuck one in a while due to youthful over-exuberance as much as anything else (and got out easily enough).

I do of course drive differently in slippery conditions. Some of the snow-tire aficionados whom I know like to brag about how aggressively they can still drive in the snow. I rather think that aggressive driving in snow is simply unwise and unsafe. Sometimes the safest thing is to stay home until the snow is cleared, and snow tires may prompt one to set out regardless.

Ninety percent or more of the time in Winter, the pavement is dry. Snow tires give worse traction on dry pavement than regular tires. (Don't they?) I do realize that snow tire rubber is optimized for the cold. (Isn't it?)

(I understand that snow tires have become a legal requirement in the Province of Quebec. I wonder if there was industry influence behind that legislation.)

So, what I wonder about is outcome data. Where the "rubber hits the road" is in the question of whether snow tires prevent collisions and save lives.

Do they? Or are they like ABS which - initially at least - did not change collisions statistics, with one theory being that drivers with them simply pushed the limits of their vehicles a little further.

 

Up where I am. it's usually good to have winter tires. but this winter has been so mild. it was funner driving with the Michelin's in the snow.